Sonnet LXXVI

GO now, ingenuous Youth!—The trying hourIs come: The World demands that thou shouldst goTo active life: There titles, wealth, and powerMay all be purchas'd—Yet I joy to knowThou wilt not pay their price. The base controulOf petty despots in their pedant reignAlready hast thou felt;—and high disdainOf Tyrants is imprinted on thy soul—Not, where mistaken Glory, in the fieldRears her red banner, be thou ever found:But, against proud Oppression raise the shieldOf Patriot daring—So shalt thou renown'dFor the best virtues live; or that deniedMay'st die, as Hampden or as Sydney died!